


a foundation and a home

by ice23hot



Category: New Girl
Genre: Breakup Denial AU, F/M, Pregnancy, just some fluff stuck in my head, no real plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 00:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9295664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ice23hot/pseuds/ice23hot
Summary: His neck is reddening. “You are literally the sexiest person alive right now, and I’m not just saying that because of biology or because I feel like a fertile caveman!”Jess feels huge and Nick is being overbearing.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! I recently fell back into my Nick/Jess feels, so here's a really casual fic where they stayed together. Because I love them. k thx

Nick knows he isn’t going to survive this pregnancy.

He returns from the bar, and she’s wearing fuzzy socks. She’s wearing fuzzy socks on the wooden floor like an animal, and the edge of the countertop is awfully close, and the next thing he knows she’s yelling something about they’re just socks, Nicholas, I know how to walk, and she’s looking indignant and swollen and beautiful before she slams the bedroom door.

“You really need to get off her jock, bud,” says Winston, hand-feeding Ferguson treats in the corner. “She needs emotional support, not to be treated like a child.”

Nick scoffs. “Oh, I suppose she told _you_ that?” 

“She did, actually. Our maternal bonding sessions are legendary.” He shrugs off Nick’s incredulous look and scoops up his beloved cat. “Maybe you should try actually talking to her about, like, emotions and stuff. She misses you when you’re at work.”

“I do not!” 

The bedroom door is thrown open and there Jess stands, arms folded, eyes stern. “Oh, I’m sorry Nicholas, am I allowed to stand? I may swoon! You better catch me in your man arms!”

Nick rolls his eyes, but holds out his arms to get Winston to stop suggestively coughing from the hallway. “C’mere and tell me about your day.”

“What, my pregnant lady day? Could you handle such femininity?” Jess sidles over, fanning her face with a pamphlet about breastfeeding. She settles onto the couch with all the grace her pregnant belly will allow, slapping away Nick’s hand when he reaches to adjust the pillow beneath her. 

“Honestly, Jess, the pillow’s lumpy, just let me –”

“Nick – ”

“Just let me be Papa Bear, okay?” Nick cringes immediately, yanking his hand away from the pillow. “I can’t believe I just said that.” 

“Is that how you would explain your borderline psychotic behavior this week? You literally growled at Schmidt last night when he reached over me to grab the pepper!” 

“I thought he was going for the grab! I couldn’t really blame him, your boobs are huge, babe.”

To his horror, Jess’s huge eyes begin to well with tears, and she’s throwing remotes at him before he can register what’s happening, and _I’m sorry I’m fat, Nick, and that the only part of me you like is my boobs, which are for the baby, by the way_ \- 

Nick’s shielding himself with the pillow but he slams it down to press down Jess’s flailing hands. “What do you mean ‘the only part that I like’?” His neck is reddening. “You are literally the sexiest person alive right now, and I’m not just saying that because of biology or because I feel like a fertile caveman!” 

“Gross!” Jess tries to free her hands to no avail. She glares up at him. “Then why haven’t you touched me in a week?” 

“Remember when I tried to touch your stomach and you slapped me and told me to get my hands off? Well, I took that very literally!”

“God, Nick, please learn to read my mind!” She flops over, letting her head rest on Nick’s lap. Vehemence is exhausting, she decides. “I was feeling extra bloated and the last thing I needed were warm man hands feeling me up.”

Nick lets out a laugh of disbelief, even as his hands find their way through Jess’s hair. “I hardly think touching my child qualifies as feeling you up.” They’re silent for a moment as Nick continues to play with her hair. “I will ask next time, though.” His voice is soft.

Jess sighs, leaning into his touch. “You don’t have to ask. I’m sorry.” She reaches for his other hand and lets its rest on her belly, just above where the baby is currently moving. The baby gives a solid kick and Nick smiles.

“There’s my little lady. You havin’ fun in there?”

“I just ate an entire bag of sour Gummi Worms, so she’s having an unborn sugar high,” Jess admits, wiping some of the toxic sour dust from her fingers onto her leggings. “I can safely say that I went at least fifteen years without eating anything that was both artificially dyed and sour, so I have your spawn to thank for my disgusting new addiction.”

“It just means that she likes me best already,” he says with a shrug. “It can’t be helped. Millers stick together.”

“She’s clearly a Day,” Jess laughs, “considering she likes me best and there hasn’t been a Miller girl born in at least five generations. Even science is on my side.”

(She remembers when they called to tell Nick’s mom that she was having a granddaughter.)

(“A girl, Nicky! Finally a girl!”)

Nick moves his other hand to the belly, letting one rest on each side. 

“You look like you’re sizing me up at a county fair, babe.”

Nick raises an eyebrow. “Maybe I am.” He leans down, putting his ear to her extended abdomen. Jess knows this is his classic move to avoid eye contact whilst saying something emotional or embarrassing. 

“Look, Jess… I’ll try not to be so controlling. I know it must suck. I just – ” He sighs and looks up at her now, finding hormonal tears brewing in her baby blues orbs. “I just couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to either one of you. And those socks are so slippery.”

(Jess fell down in the shower a few weeks ago. Nick nearly had an aneurysm.)

“I’ll be careful, Nick. I promise.”

Nick flips over his hand, and Jess sees his signature untidy scrawl in Sharpie – _Oct. 25_.

“You – You wrote down her due date?”

“Yeah.” He sounds sheepish. “I know I could just use a Post-It or something, but it’s like my new ritual thing. I like to remind myself.”

By now Jess is hiccupping through suppressed tears. “That’s really cute.”

“I do cute things, you know that!”

Out of curiousity, Jess flips over his other hand to see the figure of _$550_ written there. “Nick, what’s this?”

“It’s the money Schmidt owes me if our child doesn’t have blue eyes.”

“You bet on blue eyes?”

“Hell yes, I did! It would be a tragedy not to inherit those beauts.”

“Don’t put her under so much pressure!” whines Jess, a protective hold on her belly. “It’s hard enough to grow a baby; what if she’s trying to change her eye color and she tires us both out?”

“Does it work like that? Besides, she doesn’t need to change anything. They’ll be blue.”

Three months later, Cassandra Bonnie Miller makes her entrance into the world. She looks just like her father, which makes Jess sob in delight and Nick groan in despair.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, there's really no plot! Just some cuteness! sorry

He’s in total awe of Jess.

Given her self-deprecating tendencies, he had expected to have to reassure her every so often that she was a great mother. Jess was just too busy being a great mother for him to tell her that, however. 

She had moments of panic during her pregnancy, naturally. Once she woke him up in the middle of the night blubbering some nonsense about _what if I don’t even like the baby, Nick_ and _what if I don’t even have a birth canal, Nick_. She had worried and fretted, but Nick never doubted her for a moment. He saw the way she lit up whenever someone mentioned their unborn child, the tender way she rubbed her belly. 

And now Cassie’s here, and she’s too perfect. Jess always seems to know when she’s about to start crying, and she’ll be comforting her before anyone else knows what’s happening. The whole breast-feeding thing is pretty incredible, too. Apparently Cassie “latches” like a pro, whatever that means, but Nick isn’t surprised because their daughter is obviously a genius. If she cries in the night, Jess is immediately at the crib and cooing, and she doesn’t even seem mad about the rude wake-up call. She plans out Cassie’s outfits days in advance, color-coordinating bows and little overalls with unbridled enthusiasm. 

Nick feels hopelessly unqualified to be a parent. At times he feels like his only job is to lay on the couch and nap with Cassie so that Jess can take pictures and cry. When he accompanies mother and child on their outings, stranger ladies take delight in saying _Oh, she looks just like Daddy_ before launching into anecdotes about their own post-natal experiences. 

He knows that Jess loves their daughter more than she loves him. He accepts that. But he can’t feeling somewhat irrelevant in this whole equation. That’s why Jess catches him off guard when she waltzes into the room, wearing her nursing shield like a damn cape, Cassie attached to one breast. 

“You’re a good dad, Nick.”

It takes him a moment to register the scene. The woman in front of him hasn’t showered in three days because the baby has been fussy lately, yet she’s still smiling and feeding this human with her breasts. Somehow, she has the audacity to compliment his parenting skills. 

“I only do what you ask me to do, babe. You’re the super-parent here.”

Seemingly done with feeding, Cassie begins to wiggle in Jess’s arms. Jess pulls a burp cloth out of nowhere and hands it to Nick, who takes their daughter for Burp Duty. 

“I didn’t ask you to spend five hours on the phone, conning preschools into putting Cass onto their waiting lists,” Jess laughs.

“I wouldn’t say _conning_ –”

“You told them that she was the youngest Rhodes Scholar in history!”

“Well, she will be!”

Cassie lets out an impressive burp, and Nick moves up his hand to pat her head. Wow, she has a lot of hair. (“We’ll never be able to brush this, babe.”)

“I also didn’t ask you to put three deadbolts on the door.”

Nick looks incredulous as he tightens his hold on Cassie. “It was intuitive! There are plenty of baby thieves out there, and they’re all looking for the smartest baby genius! Have you noticed that she never spits up on her Cubs onesie? That’s because she _knows_ , Jess.”

Jess leans over to kiss them both on the head. “You’ve taught her everything she knows.”

“There are only two rules: love the Cubs, and love Mommy,” he says with a sappy smile.

Jess raises an eyebrow. “She loves you too, you know.”

Nick lets out a harsh laugh. “Doubtful. I can’t feed her or get her to stop crying -“

“She cries every time you leave for work!” Winston emerges from the hallway, toothbrush in hand. “She cries literally every time! Jess just makes sure you don’t hear so you don’t feel bad!”

Nick looks over to Jess, who is making a throat-cutting motion in Winston’s general direction. “Is that true?”

Jess sighs as Winston backs into the bathroom once again. “She misses you! I thought it was obvious! She doesn’t care that you can’t feed her, you’re her father and she loves you, bud.” She strokes Cassie’s hair. “She didn’t grow in your body but I’m still in awe of how much you love each other. Plus, you haven’t dropped her yet, which impresses me.”

“Yeah, well, she matters more to me than some old cactus,” Nick mutters. “She’s our baby, Jess. I’m obviously not letting anything happen to her.”

“Then that makes you a good dad.” Jess punctuates her statement with yet another kiss. “End of story. Now be quiet and sit still so I can take a picture.”

As Jess moans about her phone’s _storage almost full_ alert, Nick can’t help but think that maybe he’s not such a crappy parent after all.


End file.
